Today I want to show you guys what I believe to be one of the most amazing MiSTer FPGA consoles you’ll ever see - especially for Commodore fans.
If you don’t know what a MiSTer is, it’s essentially the grandaddy (and leader) of hardware emulation with ridiculous support for pixel-perfect arcade games, vintage computers and game consoles. And the support for building more cores has only accelerated over the years.
I’m going to walk you through an entire build for a Commodore 64x MiSTer with starting with the entire parts list I used thanks to the help from a local friend and site member who prefers to stay anonymous. Note: this is not a cheap build, but it is definitely bad ass worth every single penny.
THE BACKSTORY
Some of you may be thinking you’ve heard of the 64X before, and you’d be right. It was the brainchild of USA-based Barry Altman, who back in 2010 purchased the rights to license the Commodore and Amiga name brands of computers. His C64x was designed to look like an original beige Commodore 64 bread-bin, but the twist here was it had a more contemporary PC hidden on the inside - and it came with a mechanical keyboard.
Due to the untimely death of Mr Altman in 2012, though, the C64x was not on the market for very long at all and so they actually became quite rare and sort of this odd thing that shows up on Ebay from time to time.
- The beautiful box of the beautiful C64x in beautiful 2024.
However, in 2022 a man named Sean Donohue from the United Kingdom spent untold hours and funds on acquiring the Commodore USA plans, and he successfully crowdfunded bringing the C64x back to life.
And that, my friends, is the foundation of the C64x MiSTer - a gorgeous all-in-one solution that takes vintage gaming to a while new level! First, you have a bit of shopping to do.
PARTS LIST
- C64x Barebones and Fan. US customers get hit with a really high shipping fee, but at least it's very fast. And, we avoid tax so it probably evens out at some stage. If you do a search on the site for "Barebones" you'll find a VIC-20 and TED-inspired case, too.
- Mini ITX Ironclad Lite motherboard
- DE-10 Nano Mister
- Mister RAM - Required or it won't boot.
- Bluetooth Module - they sell a WiFi and Bluetooth combo. Best to get that one.
- Cable 1 connects the keyboard to the mini-itx board
- Cable 2 replaces the included dual-USB panel mount cable that came with the 64X
- Wireless Sega Genesis game pad optional. USB-based joysticks work great, too.
- Power Supply - the one that comes with the 64x isn't powerful enough. You need to replace it.
- Get a 256GB Thumb Drive and you'll never run out of space with all of the console and computer files you'll add.
Also, if you want to plug the hole for what was once meant for a DVD tray, you can 3D print this and it'll snap right onto the hard drive bracket that is in the case yet unused.
Next, when you finally receive everything (it took me a few months due to high demand. The 64X will get to your door shockingly fast, though.
THE BUILD
- Insert SD card into DE-10 nano. (It comes with a blank SD card. Replace it with your own if you want to use a larger capacity card.) This is maybe the only “gotcha” in that it’s buried within the belly of the beast. But you very rarely access this card except to add arcade cores or other firmware, which you won’t do often.
- Next, Snap the connector board out of the middle of the Ironclad if it is connected. Gently move it up and down and it will snap. Thankfully, mine came detached and simply taped to the board.
- Now remove any stand-offs from your DE-10.
- Install the stand-offs included with the Ironclad on your DE-10. The long ones go underneath, the short ones go on top and hold the bottom stand-offs in place.
- Place the DE-10 onto the Ironclad. Use the 4 included screws with the Ironclad to screw the DE-10 into place. The screws go from underneath the Ironclad into the 4 stand-offs attached to the DE-10.
- Now is a good time to make sure you placed it correctly; unscrew the 2 nuts on the DE-15 (VGA) connector on the back and place the ITX IO shield. It should fit perfectly with all the ports in place. If it does, screw the 2 nuts back into the DE-15 port. If it doesn't, double-check your stand-offs to make sure you used the right lengths. This process can be a bit of trial and error, and in my case I needed to use the shortest ones (literally 1 mm shorter than another set of 4 that came with everything). That mm mattered to generate a perfect alignment with the back port plate.
- Connect the snap-out connector board to the long pin header (left of the DE-10 if the ports are facing away from you).
- Next you want to pop in the RAM module.
- Connect the ribbon cable to the right side header of the DE-10 (if ports are facing away from you).
- Remove the front stand-offs, loosen the rear, then connect the micro-USB power connector to the power header (on the front of the DE-10 if the ports are facing away from you).
- Connect the short ethernet cable.
- Now is the time to plug power in and HDMI and power test the unit. To turn it on, grab something metallic (like a flat head screwdriver) and short the 2 power pins on the ITX front panel pin header (IIRC, it is marked, but you may need a magnifier). If you short the correct pins, it will power on and you will have video. If it works, then continue. If not, then double-check your work.
- Place complete Ironclad/DE-10 into your C64X case. Use the 4 screws that came with the C64X to screw down the board.
- If you still have the 2X USB cable on the right side of your C64X case, remove it!
- Screw in the 2X USB cable from Amazon into the right side of your C64X case. Plug the connector into the double USB pin header on the Ironclad board.
- Plug the pin-to-USB adapter into the keyboard cable, plug it into the 1 USB-A plug on the Ironclad motherboard.
- Plug the power and LED dupont connectors from the keyboard into the power and LED pins on the front panel connector on the Ironclad (this is where you shorted to power test).
- Plug the fan into the 12v (IIRC) fan connector on the Ironclad.
- Put the case together (don't screw it yet).
- Finally, it’s time for a power test! Plug in the HDMI cable and power and press the keyboard LED power light/button to turn on!
- Completed build, for reference.
- Closeup of the DE-10 Nano fully assembled.
Right off the bat, this gives us a huge pixel perfect arcade with enough games to fill a Tardis right in the comfort of our own home. Now if I want to use the MiSTer’s Commodore 64 emulation, well… holy smoke. Let me get you a tissue so you can wipe away the tears!
- The prettiest MiSTer build your eyes will ever fall upon.
Back in the day I was huge fan of playing Shinobi in the arcades, and even was proud of myself as a young lad the day I beat the game on four quarters. Truth is I’ve been playing this game a ton ever since I finished this build. And it is completely arcade accurate. I’ve got a long way to go to get back my groove, that’s for sure.
C64, Amiga, Atari, Colecovision… Genesis, Super Nintendo, N64… the list feels almost neverending!
Also, for the emulation skeptics, there’s a doodad I ordered that allows me to hook up original C64 peripherals with an IEC port, so l can use real Commodore and CMD disk drives with this amazing C64x Mister! Watch the video posted above to see this awesome add-on in action.
- What kind of Tom Foolery is this?! The best kind!
